Life Is Filled with Highs and Lows

It was 1961, I was 8 years old and in my first pennant race. The Cincinnati Reds were battling the Los Angeles Dodgers for the top spot in the National League. My dad would give me daily updates as the season wound down. This was back in the old days when there were just two teams that made the playoffs. The team that won the National League pennant would play the American League champion. Eventually, the Reds held off the Dodgers and would face the Yankees in the World Series.

Unlike today when World Series games are held at night to increase TV viewership, in 1961 all the games were held during the day. As a result, if you were the average 8-year-old kid, you were not going to be able to see much of the World Series since you were stuck in spelling class.  However, I was a lucky third grader as my teacher must have been a Reds fan and rolled in the black and white TV that we normally used for documentaries and turned on the game. That is when my love of baseball became a reality.

The baseball season is much like life. It has its ups and downs. Teams can go on winning streaks, but they also hit bumps in the road. Injuries happen and teams can go into a nosedive until their star comes back. The Reds had some bumps that year but still pulled through it in the end up until they ran into the Yankees in the Series. The Yankees had Roger Maris (who broke Babe Ruths home run record that year), Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and the irresistible Yogi Bera. It was a great year for the Reds, but the Yankees were just too good and the Reds lost in five games. It would be nine years until the Reds won another pennant. More ups and downs.

My life has been filled with its share of ups and downs but when you live to be 71 years old, you are bound to have those. Having lost both of my parents were tough times. Meeting the love of my life, Julia, was one of my great peaks. Having two wonderful children were also huge highs. Watching them become the fine men that they have become made those highs even greater.

I was a very healthy person as I entered my 50’s. Still had my tonsils, my wisdom teeth and my appendix. Then I had the shock of my life when I found out I had Multiple Myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. My outlook was not good as people would typically live just two years at that time with this horrible disease. I was certain I would not live to see 60, the same age that my mother died. I then started a series of chemotherapies. They would work for a while and then stop. More ups and downs.  Then a new chemo would come out and I would have new life.

This happened time and time again. Until, that is, when I ran out of new chemos. It looked like I had a couple months to live. This was the greatest low of my life. In tears, I begged my oncologist to somehow help me.  It was time for a Hail Mary with a second stem cell transplant. In the meantime, I lost my kidneys and I had to start dialysis. After suffering through four plus months in the hospital and having problem after problem and almost giving up a miracle happened.  I was suddenly in remission, a new high, one I had not experienced in the previous 13 years of fighting this disease.

The highs have continued, and I find myself in my own personal World Series. On the way up to Sedona for Jason’s wedding I received a call telling me that I had been approved by the Mayo Clinic to receive a kidney transplant. That started a weekend that was completed with Jason and Erin’s beautiful wedding. And the highs just continue.

Don’t ever get too down when you hit a low because the good times are around the corner. In 1975, I finally got to enjoy the first World Series win the Reds experienced in my lifetime. Just stick with it. The highs will come and you will have your own World Series.

The Miracles Continue

I have always been a fan of medical shows on television. You can go all the way back to “Marcus Welby, M.D.” and “Medical Center”. Then there was “St. Elsewhere,” “E.R.” and “Chicago Hope” in the ‘80s and ‘90s.  More recently “The Resident,” “The Good Doctor,” “New Amsterdam” and “Chicago Med.”  Of course, my all-time favorite was “House.” “House” was a true curmudgeon. Still, he was brilliant, solving disease mysteries that no one else could. I truly believe that I am smarter today because of these medical shows.  When I get my blood tests back, I feel informed because of what I have seen on TV.

Thank goodness I have gained this knowledge because I have had enough tests these last two months to sink a battleship as I get ready to hopefully receive a kidney transplant.  So far this month I have had the following: CT Abdomen Pelvis without IV Contrast, NM Cardiac Perfusion Rest and Stress Spect, DX Chest Anterior Posterior or Posterior Anterior and Lateral X-Ray, 6 Minute Stress Walk, ECG, Urinalysis with Microscopic, Echo Transthoracic (TTE), Abdomen MRI, Colonoscopy plus 16 vials of blood that turned into 40 results. Don’t feel bad if you don’t understand most of this. I did all of those tests and still don’t understand it all. Julia had her own series of donor tests.

In addition, we each had a series of meetings to speak to those on the transplant team - a social worker, surgeon, doctors from Infectious Disease, Hematology, Nephrology, Cardiology, and a coordinator Physician’s Assistant.  There have been meetings with the National Kidney Foundation to help us find donors and caregiving training. Unless I can use Julia’s kidney, Julia will have to care for me and I will care for her.

The process of receiving a kidney varies. There is the most traditional path of receiving a kidney from a deceased individual. This can take an extended wait time and typically lasts about a third of the time of a live organ. It could take a decade to get such a kidney. Second, there is the process of receiving a kidney donated directly from a relative or acquaintance. Lastly, there is the possibility of getting a kidney from someone that you don’t know in an exchange of kidneys – each recipient secures a donor who donates to someone in exchange for a living match.  This is the type that we will likely pursue if Julia and I are not a good enough match.

Julia has agreed to give me one of her kidneys. If we are not a good match due to factors other than our blood types, she could donate a kidney to someone else that is waiting for one. For this person to receive a kidney, they also have someone willing to donate a kidney. Chances are that there may need to be several people in this chain. The Mayo Clinic is well known for its ability to create these chains and matches. After a match is found, surgery will be scheduled but likely at different times.

Julia has gone through her own set of tests and learned that she has been accepted as a donor. If she wasn’t accepted, I would have had to go to plan B.  Plan B is the process of finding another person to donate. Amazingly, I have a few individuals that have volunteered to go through the process. It is amazing having support like this. I didn’t even have to ask. They just generously volunteered to be tested as a donor. Luckily, we will not have to go this route.

There are certain criteria for finding a good match between the donor and the recipient.  They are as follows:

1. 
   The same tissue type—aside from identical twins, no 2 people have the exact same tissue type, though a match is considered the “same” if tissues match 12 certain protein markers.
2. Compatible blood type—certain blood types are compatible, meaning their antibodies won’t attack each other. An antibody is a blood protein formed when the body recognizes another substance as harmful.
3. Negative serum crossmatch tests—this series of blood tests looks at the reaction between a kidney donor’s and a transplant recipient’s blood or organs. Negative test results mean there are no antibodies from the recipient’s blood that would destroy the donor’s.

Should I get lucky enough for all of this to happen, I will spend a few days in the hospital after the surgery. Julia will spend a night if all goes well. We will then have to take it easy for a couple weeks and should be back to normal in three months. I will be on a regimen of medications for life to keep from rejecting the organ, but I will no longer be tethered to dialysis many times a week. Through the years of battling Multiple Myeloma, I knew that my kidneys would eventually give out. Fifteen years ago, there was no option for a kidney transplant because of Myeloma. Now due to the remarkable recovery from my time in the hospital in 2022 and medical advancements, it is possible and even recommended by my medical team.

At this point, all looks well with just one procedure outstanding. We will likely know sometime in early September if we can move forward. The miracles continue!